Coresourcing is a selective collection of articles and posts that will help sourcers / recruiters keep abreast with new opinions, views and ideas within Candidate sourcing and recruitment.
Feel free to send across any articles or posts or suggestions at masoodsnet@gmail.com.

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Monday, December 28, 2009

Process outsourcing has always had a transformational approach where parts of the process are outsourced, without disturbing the process itself. Traditionally offshore RPO solutions have been provided on an effort basis model i.e. per seat/per day. To make solutions more competitive and beneficial to clients, IRPO is moving towards a Transactional, Product based approach, where they will invoice clients on Deliverables like (per name/per CV/prequalified contact... etc.)

How would companies benefit from such an approach?

The deliverables would be set up right from the beginning itself. Client would pay for only that which you receive. Workforce flexibility/scalability is guaranteed. Where previously you were utilizing one resource per day, now you can utilize any number of resources. Spikes can be countered effectively. Quicker turnaround time can be guaranteed. Better bench utilization at vendors end.

Taking their SAAP (Service AS A Product) model to a new extreme IRPO is building an E commerce site where customers could buy CV’s, Interviews, vacancies etc using the portal.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Its 5:00 AM in the morning and my colleague, Yusuf wakes up to the tune of his mobile ringing. Bob, the recruiter on the other side has an urgent assignment that he needs assistance with sourcing. Yusuf still in his sleep asks for 15 minutes to call back. On the call, he takes the requirement, makes notes, and puts the sourcing strategy together. He sends a call summary to Bob copying the sourcer in when he gets back to the office and briefs the sourcer about the requirement. Yusuf manages the search and by the time Bob is back in his office, he has good quality resumes in his Inbox/ATS/Database

Alternatively, Bob drops in an email for the sourcer to have a look at when he comes into work. The sourcer will then get back to Bob with any questions and obtain any clarifications when he is available. The sourcer will in the meanwhile continue working on the assignment.

Once the email reaches Bob, he responds with answers to the questions, confirm the search criterion, and/or change it as per his requirement. The sourcer will then work on the changed criterion and send across matching results.

An inconvenient, but appropriate phone call saved a lot of time and frustration for the sourcer, the manager and the client.

Offshore recruitment process outsourcing has its own challenges, none that can’t be overcome.

For a successful oRPO, it is important that they acquire and disseminate the sourcing skills and knowledge within the organisation, hire the right personality types, keep them motivated, have appropriate infrastructure and a host of other things. All elements are equally important and can’t be done away with. Communication stands out as the most vital, due to the offshore nature of the model. In most cases communication will make or break an oRPO engagement.

There are various factors that contribute to keeping the communication clear of distortions

1. Medium of communication (audible, readable; no disturbances/distortions in the channel)2. Clarity of thought (Know what you want to communicate)3. Clarity of Communication (Converting thoughts into meaningful speech/text for the audience)4. Regularity of Communication (Frequency of communication)5. Proximity (Physical distance)

The oRPO communication Grid illustrates the situations that may arise due to these factors.

Depending on the regularity of communication and physical distance between each other your oRPO engagement will fall in either of 4 situations.

1) Black holeThese are oRPO engagements which are most likely to fail. The offshore providers don’t have any sort of onsite presence and do not utilise available communication mediums to interact. They may not have prior agreement on any communication system or may fail to follow it. They are not aware as to what’s happening on the other side. Feedback and reporting are completely ignored. Good grounds to breed suspicion and mistrust. The other side of the coin is that the client team does not consider the outsourcing engagement positively or favourably and tend to neglect providing the necessary feedback, which is absolutely essential. This happens when everyone on the team has not bought into the concept.

2) StrangersThese are unlikely oRPO engagements. It is quite rare that inspite of proximity, there will be low regularity. This situation may arise if needs are not properly understood and the parties have not been able to get a rapport going. Clarity of thought and communication or rather the lack of it will be another set of contributors to such a situation

3) ProfessionalThese are efficient oRPO engagements. They will be process and SLA driven and will work towards doing their bit as efficiently as possible. The parties will mostly restrict to long distance but efficient means of communication. It is amazing how your work can speak for your self. Needs will be communicated in clear terms and Feedback will be quick. They may or may not have onsite presence. Most of these engagements will graduate towards a handshake. Frequent visits are conducted by both parties to bridge the offshore gap.

4) HandshakeThese will be the most successful oRPO engagements. They will have a substantial onsite presence and tend to develop a friendly relationship. Frequent onsite and offsite visits will be conducted. A dedicated oRPO point of contact will be present onsite and liaison with the operations. This physical presence leads to a better understanding and empathy between the parties. There is more awareness of what actually happens at the other side of the wall, how your assignment or results for the same is being treated. Scheduling, prioritising and managing the execution of the project becomes more seamless. Reaction time and relationships in these engagements sets them apart from others and makes them more successful.

Handshakes are the ideal recipe for an oRPO. Some may argue that this takes away the offshore element; the more complex the service gets the more there will be a need for a handshake

In his presentation at ERA’s 4th Annual Convention on 23rd March 2007 - Mumbai Regan George (CEO OS2i) talks about an oRPO model. He calls it GDRPO (Globally distributed recruitment process outsourcing). It looks to move an oRPO towards the handshake stage.

oRPO’s will have different gradients and mix of the above situation. It would be rare to have complete strangers, black holes, professionals or Handshakes all the time. The same oRPO may have different situations with different clients. Depending on the service and need of the client, the people involved, transition time different situations will arise.

Emails, Chats, Phone calls, Skype conversations, Applicant tracking systems are preferred means of communication. A detailed sourcing form, flexibility of calling time, prompt response, clear feedback, periodic reviews, work schedule, prioritising assignments, and others system can be used to ensure a smooth and precise flow of communication.

Laying down communication processes, systems and enforcing them helps but doesn’t solve the purpose. Empathy between the offshore sourcing team and the recruiters on the strengths and challenges faced on both sides is critical to creating a successful partnership!

With the economic downturn there are more candidates than Job. It seems this will continue to be the trend for 2009 and beyond.

For staffing firms, agencies, job portals, there will be lesser clients and jobs to work on. and more candidates willing to be placed. Does this mean that their focus shifts more towards a revenue model based on fulfilling candidate needs.

With Monster's "Monster Evolutions" and Irish Job's Horizon targeted towards outplacement service there is a signal towards other shifts. Other Portals may follow suit.

RPO's, Job Portals and even Agencies may shift towards gathering a significant portion of their revenue from candidates. Services like resume/CV writing, social media profile writing skills, life coaching and interviewing courses etc could be more attractive.

Personalized placement service could be an interesting model. The candidate will pay a basic fee for their personality branding and pay a placement/interview surcharge.

The BBC News website is keeping track of jobs lost and created in the months ahead. This is not a comprehensive study but a snapshot from around the UK since 1 January. Move the slider to see Job Losses.

They also have an interesting Recession Tracker for those who are interested in precedents.

About Me

Masoodali Sayed is currently leading Operations for TalentPundits where he is a co-founder. At Talent Pundits he has built a unique bouquet of solutions combining Telephone Sourcing, Web Sourcing and Candidate engagement. A Sourcing expert, he has attained Level II CPSP (Certified People Sourcing Professional) Certification. In his previous role he was leading
the India Service Management Centre of Futurestep and also managed its largest IT Account.. Prior to this he was managing the APAC and Europe
sourcing for Cap Gemini. He has had the opportunity of working as part of one
of the first entrants in the Offshore Recruitment Process outsourcing space and
has comprehensive knowledge about the Global Recruitment Engagement Models and
Processes. Within this period he has been responsible for blueprinting and
mapping future trends within Recruitment Technology, Process Integration, Best
Practices and Client Operations. Along with recruitment, he has also managed
Market Research processes including Telephone and Web Research.

He holds a Master degree in
Industrial Psychology and Post graduate diploma in Human resources from Symbiosis
Institute of Management Sciences.

His expertise lies in Global
Sourcing, recruitment technology, deep web research, training and process
re-engineering and has played a key role in establishing BOT model.
He holds a Master degree in Industrial Psychology and Post graduate diploma in
Human resources from Symbiosis Institute of Management Sciences (SIMS) also
finished internal quality programs for ISO 9001 and ISMS 27001.